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My GPA serial number GPA 4545 and called "The Amphib" is shown
here parked in front of Pyramid No. 1 at Tikal, Guatemala in 1967-1968.

"THE AMPHIB"

NOTE: This
jeep has now been sold to a collector in the USA for restoration.

There is a puzzle in that the vehicle was registered under a
GPA USA registration number 7012118 which is for a GPA made in March or April
1943 That USA registration number, mistakenly called "hood number" by
many jeep collectors, MAY have been from one of the other jeeps in Levy's
surplus yard (see details below under WAR SURPLUS).

My Ford amphibious jeep model GPA was made on or about 22 December 1942, just before
Christmas and has serial number GPA 4545. It would have looked like the one
below.

Canadian Army GPA in service just before D-Day 1944 being inspected by
Prime Minister MacKenzie King, General Crerar etc. Probably with a Beach
Commando for 3rd. Canadian Infantry Division.

A photograph by a Canadian soldier taken in Northwest Europe circa
1944-1945. The driver appears to be wearing a US helmet so it is
probably in US or French Army service.

WARTIME SERVICE

The wartime service of mine is unknown. It MAY have served with the Canadian
Army or the US Army. Canada used a few (3?) overseas and just over 30 in Canada,
mainly at the Combined Operations School in Comox (Courtenay), British
Columbia.

WAR SURPLUS

My GPA is the centre one of these three. As found by Lionel Forge
in 1957.

GPA 4545 in Levy's surplus yard in 1957 as found.

The fixed up GPA that sat out front of Levy's in Toronto. This is NOT
mine.

Engine compartment of the fixed up Levy's GPA. This is NOT mine.

In 1957 it was sitting in a surplus yard in Weston (now part of Toronto),
Ontario, Canada. Levy's had 4 GPAs. One fixed up and out front, and three
junkers in the yard out back.

A NEW OWNER

Private Lionel Forge, 13 Parachute Battalion, circa 1945. These uniforms
are now in the collection of Steve Mackenzie in BC, Canada.

Lionel was born in 1925, and he served in 1945 as well as post-war as a British
Paratrooper in 13th Parachute Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, 6th Airborne
Division. He parachuted into Germany on Operation Varsity (across
the Rhine on 24 March 1945 in a daylight combat drop and then his Division
fought its way to Wismar on the Baltic in Germany where they met up with the
Soviets. Lionel stayed in the British Army and served with the Paras in Palestine, Java and Singapore.

Lionel emigrated to Canada and was living in the Toronto area, found the amphibious jeeps. He bought GPA
4545 for $300 and I have the original Bill of Sale.

He had the book HALF SAFE which is about a GPA that was modified for world
travel and which was travelling around the world. Lionel decided to modify his
GPA and travel as well. One key difference is that he did not plan to sail
across oceans with his.

Lionel did not give it an exotic name like some other well-known GPAs
modified for world travel such as "Half Safe" (which travelled around the
world) and "La Tortuga" (which travelled from northern Alaska to
southernmost town in South America). He just called his "The Amphib".

GPA 4545 during the conversion process.

Looking down into GPA 4545 in 1957 with the floorboards removed.

Lionel was an aircraft sheet metal mechanic. He decided to modify his GPA
for his travels. Unfortunately for me he removed and discarded many of the
original fittings such as seats and windshield.

He grafted a 1949 Dodge station wagon roof onto it.

c.1957 Lionel sitting on his GPA after the first round of
modifications.

1957

1959

TIFF photo to be changed to JPEG

TIFF photo to be changed to JPEG

GPA as modified sitting in Toronto?

In 1958 Lionel got a job working on what became a Canadian icon - the Avro
Arrow jet fighter plane. Lionel told me that he helped make the air
intakes. He drove "The Amphib" to work.

Later he worked for DeHavilland and his employee parking decal is still on
the window.

Lionel swimming "The Amphib" on Lake Ontario in 1958

Lionel driving the GPA out of Lake Ontario lake about 1959. I found this
flag staff and red ensign packed inside the GPA!

Vessel Licence 50E36411 dated Aug. 29, 1961 for this GPA.

In 1967 Lionel took "The Amphib" travelling. His intention was to
write a book about his travels, but unfortunately he never did. He did take
"The Amphib" from the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area and travelled down
through the United States. He photographed "The Amphib" in front of
the Alamo in Texas (famous last stand of Davey Crockett, Colonel Sam Houston and
Jim Bowie). Lionel took "the Amphib" to every country in Central
America, and even into Columbia.

HE'LL SEE THE WORLD IN AMPHIBIOUS CAR - Kitchener-Waterloo
Record Wednesday, April 19, 1967 p. 3

OUR STRANGEST CAR IS ON ITS WAY - Toronto Daily Star,
Sat. April 22, 1967 p. 23 Part 1

OUR STRANGEST CAR IS ON ITS WAY - Toronto Daily Star,
Sat. April 22, 1967 p. 23 Part 2

Lionel Forge's "Business Card"

Entrance permit for GPA into Nicaragua for 5 days, 30 March, 1968

Tent set up on the roof of the GPA.

GPA4545 in front of Toronto's new City Hall in Ontario in 1967. Note new
(1965) Canada flag flying on the left.

GPA4545 in front of the Alamo in Texas. This is where the famous battle
was fought between Santa Anna's Mexican troops and the Texans - Jim
Bowie and Davy Crocket. c. 1967.

GPA4545 parked at the foot of Pyramid No. 1 at Tikal, Guatemala about
Dec 1967.

His plan was to carry on down the East side of South America, ship "The
Amphib" over to Africa by cargo ship, and then continue travelling
throughout Africa, up through Europe and then to England where his mother was
living.

Unfortunately for him, the cargo ship was taken off the route while he was
in central America, so Lionel reluctantly shipped "The Amphib to a friend's
place in Florida for storage, and carried on with his travels without
it.

Later he changed the engine to a larger jeep engine which made the engine
cover sit higher.

A photo of "The Amphib" in Steveston by Lionel. Lionel kept
tinkering with it and modifying it.

Inside the GPA, looking forward. Tarp is over the jeep, so the windshield is dark.
Steering wheel is sitting inside spare tire.

A scan of toy GPA that I acquired with "The Amphib" from
Lionel. It is battery driven and has a working propeller and wheels!.
The life ring on the roof is the activation switch!

I met Lionel in 1990, and he would never sell as he planed to take "the
Amphib" as he called it, travelling again. Lionel kept "The
Amphib" up on blocks and under a tarp. In the Fall of 1990, Lionel rebuilt
the brake system. In 11 years of visiting him, I never once saw the whole GPA.
In the later years he had the wheels off - probably because he had worked on the
brakes.

1990 - When I first met Lionel and "The Amphib". Lionel lived
in the boat that is up on blocks behind "the Amphib". This is
as much as I got to see of "the Amphib" until I acquired
it.

In the Spring of 2001, I was unable to reach Lionel by phone and became
worried. I called a friend of his who lived closer and he went down to the boat.
He found Lionel dead. He apparently died suddenly while playing with his toy
trains, and simply keeled over.

My friend Steve MacKenzie, who had also become friends with Lionel over the
years, and I assisted the family and attended the memorial service. Lionel's
ashes were scattered on the Fraser River near where he loved to go for
walks. I was later able to acquire "The Amphib" from the family,
and Steve acquired Lionel's Parachute Regiment uniforms etc.

A happy Neil Stevens at the wheel of "The Amphib"

We picked up "The Amphib" with my then 17-year old son Neil
steering it onto the tilt-bed tow-truck and placed it in safe storage.

Luckily I obtained a thick
photo album of pictures of this GPA from 1957 to recent years, as well as his
passports, and travel documents, and a stack of old licence plates for the GPA.
As a result, I can use these along with my notes from many meetings with Lionel,
to reconstruct his travels with the GPA. I published a two-part article in CONVOY magazine in 2002.

LICENCE PLATES

I also have his 2 boat licence plates 50E36411, and many licence plates for
this GPA. In Canada at that time, one received a new licence plate number each
year. These are very useful for dating photographs, and luckily Lionel Forge
kept all of the following, and simply kept adding licence plates on top of the
previous one! On the rear of the vehicle were 7 licence plates! For the front,
there are the last three (1967, 1972, 1973).

ALL ARE ONTARIO PLATES. He does not appear to have registered the Amphib
in British Columbia

1957-1962 MISSING (from photographs I know that the licence plate numbers
were as follows:

1957 46938-XMISSING

195810145-X MISSING

195956957-XMISSING

1960-1962MISSING. MAY NOT HAVE BEEN LICENCED.

1963 X-44469

1964 X-29596

1965 13088-X

1966 4596-X

1967 43 49X THIS
WAS THE YEAR OF HIS EPIC TRIP TO USA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. IT WAS ALSO CANADA'S
CENTENNIAL YEAR.

1968-1971 NONE AS FAR AS I KNOW

1972 55 63X

1973 HXU 570 (last
registration)

Like "Half Safe", "The Amphib" is
UNIQUE.

AFTER THE CIVILIAN CHANGES WERE REMOVED.

Photos taken June 2004. The Olive Drab paint is the correct WWII colour but
this is just a cosmetic over-spray - it looks far better than the white and
turquoise paint.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Right (starboard) side.

Front, high view.

Front, low view.

Inside, driver's position.

Inside, instrument panel. No data plates, original round instruments
replaced by single cluster panel from a civilian Willys.